


Memory Loss

by FPwoper



Series: NaNoWriMo 2020 [12]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Amnesia, Dean and Cas are friends, Dean breaks down completely, F/M, ambiguous ending, dog walker au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-12
Updated: 2020-11-12
Packaged: 2021-03-09 17:42:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27530203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FPwoper/pseuds/FPwoper
Summary: Dean has forgotten... everything, except that he's a dog walker now.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester (Previous relationship), Lisa Braeden/Dean Winchester
Series: NaNoWriMo 2020 [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1995412
Comments: 6
Kudos: 11





	Memory Loss

**Author's Note:**

> This is prompt number 12 from my 30 NaNo 2020 prompts: Dog Walker AU + Amnesia on an anniversary
> 
> Thanks to trouble for the prompt "Dog walker AU".  
> Thanks to Triss for the prompt "Amnesia on an anniversary"
> 
> This work is unbeta'd.

When Dean wakes up, he’s not quite sure where he is. The bed and the room don’t immediately feel familiar, and it takes Dean a little while to get his bearings before he gets up – there’s an alarm that woke him, anyway. He can see a notification on his phone to pick up a few dogs in the morning and smiles, instantly remembering that he’s a dog walker. The woman in his bed, though, with her dark hair and face turned from him, he doesn’t recognise. He must have brought her home the night before, or… something like that. He’s also not quite sure whether he’s in his own home or in this woman’s. Dean stretches and quietly gets out of the bed, picking up his clothing and moving into the direction he assumes is the bathroom. He almost whoops when he’s right in one go.

The bathroom is small but has all his own toiletries, so… definitely his home. But there’s also a second toothbrush, and a hairbrush, a few hair ties, and a pink razor in addition to Dean’s razor. So the woman might not just be a one night stand. Dean isn’t ready to examine whatever he feels at that – he vaguely remembers falling in love with a man a while ago and he sort of hoped… they were together? – so instead he brushes his teeth and uses the deodorant before pulling on last night’s clothes. He moves downstairs to the kitchen and starts making himself some coffee, which feels like muscle memory even though he doesn’t actively _remember_ making coffee in this house, in _his_ house. One he might share with a woman whose name he barely knows.

Dean makes himself breakfast and looks up where exactly he needs to pick up the dogs. Then, he gets ready, makes sure that he has keys to a house he doesn’t actually know where it is, and pulls on his shoes and jacket. He remembers to lock the door behind him and put a pin in his current location, labelling it as ‘Home’ for Google Maps so he knows how to get back. He hums as he also sets the route to the address for the first dog. He puts in his earbuds, plays Metallica, and walks to the first house.

Once he’s taken out all of the dogs, he sits down heavily on a bench in the park. He should probably head home and figure out what to do with his afternoon, with the woman in his house, with the fact that he barely knows what he’s even doing with his life. He takes his phone out of the pocket of his jacket, turning it around in his hands mindlessly while he is thinking what to do with this whole _situation_. Eventually, he unlocks the phone and takes a deep breath before moving through his messages, seeing if something sparked a memory. One of the top messaging threads is from Cas, a name that does sound familiar. Dean feels something fuzzy – was Cas the dude he was in love with when he was younger? – but he doesn’t want to examine it much further. But the length of the messaging thread shows that they must have been talking for a long while, and they usually talk every day, although it’s been quiet the last few days. When he moves up through the thread, he sees some jokes, attempting to figure out a day to meet up for coffee or a movie, and them simply talking about their days. The image Dean’s saved on his phone from Cas shows a dark-haired man with startlingly blue eyes, and Dean _knows_ this is the man he was in love with.

Dean sighs and looks at the second thread, one with Lisa. The image here is a dark-haired woman – Dean certainly does have type – and it’s definitely the woman in Dean’s bed this morning. Their messaging thread is full of hearts and questions about when they’re home, and all of a sudden, Dean is tired. He just doesn’t know what to do anymore, because he’s clearly dating someone, from the number of heart emojis in their messaging thread, but also… he’s not sure if he’s feeling that right now? Sure, Lisa looks nice and all that, but…

Dean takes a deep breath and presses “Call” next to Cas’s messaging thread. He needs to talk to someone, and right now, Cas feels like the right person to talk to.

“Dean?” he hears, in a voice deeper than Dean initially expected to go with the image.

“Cas?”

“Hi, Dean, why are you calling?” Dean senses that Cas is worried. “Are…. are you okay? Can I do anything for you?”

“Cas,” Dean says, voice quiet. “I… I can’t remember anything. Help me, please. I’m in the park near my home but I just… I don’t know what’s happening. Please?” Dean’s voice breaks on the last words. He can’t stop himself from sobbing, hiding his face in his hands.

“Dean? I’m going to come over, okay? Hang on tight, I’ll be there in a few minutes. Stay on the phone with me?”

Dean nods, not even conscious of the fact that Cas can’t see, but Cas seems to understand him nonetheless, and he keeps on telling Dean to stay calm, that he’ll be there soon, while Dean hears all kinds of background noises that told him that Cas was pulling on shoes and a jacket and actually moving outside. Dean slowly calms down as he realises someone is on his way, that someone cares for him enough to drop literally anything to come to his rescue.

It takes about ten minutes, but then a man Dean imagines can only be Cas comes running over, taking a phone off his ear and disconnecting.

“Dean!” Cas skids to a halt in front of him, kneeling down and taking his hands in his own. “What happened? You… you said that you don’t remember, but what’s gone exactly?”

Dean can’t help but take in Cas’s face and voice before focusing on his question. “I… I don’t know what’s gone. Walking the dogs came naturally, but… Lisa? The woman I woke up to? Not so much. Can’t remember shit. Didn’t remember you until I checked my phone and saw a messaging thread. Only got Lisa’s name from those messages too.”

“Oh Dean,” Cas says. He finally takes a seat next to Dean on the bench and wraps him up in a hug. Dean relaxes into that as if it’s his second home, and it does calm him down. “Have you spoken to Lisa yet?”

Dean shakes his head. “Barely remember a thing about her, don’t know what her voice sounds like… Didn’t even know her name. How…?”

Cas takes out his own phone again and dials someone quickly. “Hi Lisa, it’s Cas. I’m with Dean… yeah, I know… No, he’s okay… He is, it’s just the amnesia again… Oh, Lis, I’m so sorry… We’ll come over, okay? And I’ll deliver him home safe.”

Dean only witnesses Cas’s part of the conversation, unsure what happens on the other side of the line, what Lisa said. “We’re going home?”

“Yup,” Cas says, popping the p. “I’m bring you home. It’s apparently your anniversary tonight, but since you don’t remember starting to date with Lisa… well, we’ll just make it into a different night.”

“It’s… my anniversary? How long have Lisa and I been dating for?”

Cas’s lips thin. “Two years, today.”

“Has… has this _amnesia_ thing happened before?”

“Yeah,” Cas says, sighing. He gets up from the bench and helps Dean get up too. “Sometimes it’s worse than others, but this seems to be a pretty big one. Usually, you’re just losing a few days. Now you’ve actually lost about two years. The fact that you’ve called me first probably says enough.”

Dean wants to ask more, but he just can’t. He’s apparently going home to his girlfriend, someone he’s been dating but can’t remember, and he just doesn’t remember. Like Cas said, they’d probably have to make it into a different night. Dean sighs but follows Cas home, wherever that is. He just hopes he does get his memories back at some point.


End file.
